“Capacity” is a defensive mindset. The Collective is currently supporting creative agencies around the world re-imagining their businesses for a brighter future – for the benefit if employees and customers.
Inexorably as one journeys through the transformation battlefield one is drawn to the critical tipping point where fancy PowerPoints and evangelized visions, need to be operationalized as collaborative processes, techniques and approaches - in order to shift from a value capture to value creation mode. Inevitably at that moment, the claim arises..” …we are at capacity”…”we can't do that extra stuff”.
Yet as I travel from one transformative engagement to another, I realize that one person’s…or indeed one organization’s view of ‘capacity’ varies from location to location… so where is the truth? Is this some form of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Could it be that capacity – in this case, has nothing to do with resources, or hours being filled?…. But is more a statement that describes “Doing what I do” and being reasonably contented with that.
It is the mantra of collective denial, as organizations furiously try and extract more blood from the same stone, cost-cutting, optimizing and indeed fantasizing that “we will recover our position”…endlessly horizontal dancing to the tune of risk aversion, and market saturation.
To liberate change, we have to creatively dismantle this expression of status –quo…and replace it with a desire to grow business, make a difference in life and personally develop. Miraculously new ‘capacities’ emerge, performance and results are stretched and talk of resources and capacity being ‘to blame’ are slowly eradicated to be replaced by curiosity, risk and a certain tension that all support organic change.
Those involved in the tidal surge of technology-driven transformations should be wary of the “Capacity” battle cry and see it for what it is – an expression of resistance to change!
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